


Square Pegs in Round Holes

by 7th_sense



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, Misfits AU, Non Idol U
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-06-11 16:41:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15319764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/7th_sense/pseuds/7th_sense
Summary: 200 hours of community service can seem real boring.Unless you get struck by lightning on your first damn day, and your probation worker doesn't even let you count the hour.





	1. Chapter I: Thunderstruck

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I've been toying around with for the longest time, and I'm finally uploading it, so I hope you enjoy!  
> The first few chapters are likely to be quite short while I introduce all the characters (and include numerous cliffhangers), but I promise they will get longer as the story goes on!  
> Hope you like it!

"This is your chance to do something good. Give something back to society, make a difference in people's lives. That's what community service is all about. There are people out there that think you're scum, and you now have an opportunity to prove them wrong--"

"Yeah, but what if they're right?" Donghyuck kicked the can in front of his foot towards the tall, broad shouldered man who was speaking. He seemed kind mannered, definitely better than Donghyuck had expected from a probation officer, but he was just _unbelievably_  boring, his monotone voice almost unbearable. If Donghyuck was going to get through this community service, he'd have to make his own entertainment. 

He looked around at the 7 other orange clad boys, all leaning against the fence in the same nonchalant manner, before locking eyes with the one he liked the least. He smiled to himself.

"No offense," he spoke, "but some people are just born criminals."

"Are you trying to get killed?" the boy he'd provoked immediately retorted. The letters around his obnoxiously tacky chain spelled out MAX, which Donghyuck assumed was his name, or an indication of how easy he was going to be to mess with. 

"Case in point," Donghyuck shrugged and leaned back against the fence, reveling in the chuckles erupting from the throats of the other 6 boys, and ignoring the daggers that Max's eyes seemed to be shooting in his direction. 

All he earned from the probation officer, however, was an eyeroll and the continuation of a monologue that only got progressively duller. 

Ten minutes and a seemingly endless speech later, Donghyuck was slapping a thick coat of paint onto a worn out bench, surrounded by 7 strangers that had, at some point, fucked up just as bad as he had. His eyes fell onto the dark haired boy, who was currently clumsily smearing white paint over the same bench. The boy glanced over at him, meeting his eye, and immediately prompting him to begin a conversation. 

"What's your name?"

The dark haired boy narrowed his eyes slightly. 

"Renjun."

"What'd you get done for? Shoplifting?" 

Renjun's head shake and eye roll answered Donghyuck's question well enough.

"So, what was it?"

Nothing. 

"Come on, we've all fucked up in some way or other. This is a chance to _network_ , we shouldn't be hiding shit from each other. If anything, we should be trading tips."

Renjun groaned: "Some dude insulted my sister, so I punched him."

Donghyuck snorted. 

"Sounds like something out of a soap opera."

Renjun sighed. Whoever this boy was, he was really getting on his damn nerves. He considered just asking him to shut up, but the one hundred and ninety nine hours and forty five minutes he'd have to share with him over the following few weeks prompted him to reconsider. 

"It was just at some store. He pissed me off." 

"You should've just grabbed one of those little pens they have at the counter and just jabbed it in his eye." Donghyuck made a stabbing gesture with his hand, before extending it to Renjun. 

"I'm Donghyuck."

In the moment that Renjun's hand reluctantly met that of his brand new acquaintance, a loud noise startled them both. Looking around, Donghyuck noticed the darkening sky, a collection of dull, grey clouds completely blocking out the sun. He narrowed his eyes, trying to understand the sudden change of weather, when a flash of lightning struck a tree nearby, prompting Donghyuck and Renjun to break their handshake as they both looked around, baffled. 

"What the hell is this weather?" another of the boys spoke, prompting the other 7 to look in his direction. His chestnut brown hair was swept to the right, and his sculpted face wore an expression of indescribable annoyance. Donghyuck found himself thinking that this boy must not be used to getting angry. People that pretty never were.

A flash of lightning hit the car only a few feet to the right of Renjun, prompting everyone to jump up, startled. Paintbrushes were suddenly discarded on the dark pavement, puddles of white paint now scattered across it. 

"Okay, I think it's safe to say I'm a little bit freaked out," pretty boy yelled out, his voice barely audible over the increasingly booming thunder. He backed away from the bench, knocking over the can on his bench in the process, white paint now gracing the bottom of his bright orange jumpsuit.

"At the risk of losing my street cred," Donghyuck yelled over the increasingly roaring thunder, slowly backing up towards the safety of the community center building, "I'm gonna say we should probably _run!"_

The boys began running, taking quick leaps, two of them jumping over a freshly painted bench, their hands now covered in white streaks of paint that went completely ignored as they ran towards the door, the fear filled adrenaline pumping through their veins. 

Suddenly, almost masked by the strong gust of wind and the sharp raindrops that hastily raced to the ground, a flash of lightning blazed in front of the boys' eyes.

Donghyuck felt himself flying across the air for way longer than seemed physically possible, before the bright light vanished and everything went dark. 


	2. What. The F***?

When Na Jaemin opened his eyes, all he felt was a sharp pain in the back of his head and an uneasy feeling in his stomach. Several strands of his light brown coloured hair obstructed his vision as he sat up, blinking repeatedly in hopes of clearing up his blurry vision. A dark haired figure appeared in front of him, extending a hand. Jaemin grabbed onto it without a second thought, stumbling slightly when he got to his feet. 

"You okay?" 

"Yeah," Jaemin mumbled in response to the boy who'd helped him up. 

"Did we just get HIT BY LIGHTNING!?" the exclamation echoed through the empty surroundings of the community center. Jaemin turned around to find a blonde boy with his mouth agape, clearly the source of the startling scream. "We should be DEAD!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," the boy who'd helped Jaemin to his feet spoke, rolling his eyes so far back Jaemin thought he must have seen his own brain. His eyes met Jaemin's and he once again extended a hand towards him.

"I'm Renjun, by the way."

Still slightly out of it, Jaemin shook his hand lightly and gave him a small nod before mumbling: "Jaemin."

The probation officer walked out from behind a car, clearly affected by the several strikes of lightning, his face contorted in shock and concern. 

"Is everyone alright?" he yelled out at the orange clad boys, rubbing the back of his head with a pained expression on his face. His question was met by seven nods, the frustrated boy that Donghyuck had provoked nowhere to be seen. His absence went unnoticed.

"I think we should call it a day," the probation officer mumbled, looking distraught.

"Can this still count as a whole hour?" the loud blonde boy yelled out again.

"I'm afraid not, Mr Zhong. Just go home guys. Rest."

"But it's not our fault we got struck by fucking lightning--"

"Just go home, Mr. Zhong."

_Mr. Zhong_  complied, but not before weakly kicking a bucket of paint over, white paint spilling over the soaked pavement. Jaemin flinched at the sound of the bucket hitting the floor, rubbing the aching spot on the back of his head. Still slightly disoriented, he followed the other six boys inside, trying to understand just what had happened. 

The loud blond boy kicked open the door to the changing room, a loud bang echoing through the shabby looking space. The doors of the lockers that lined the dirty, tiled walls shook slightly at his entrance. 

"Calm it Zhong," Renjun remarked. The blond boy swiftly turned around, facing Renjun and narrowing his eyes at him. Jaemin thought for a second that lasers may come shooting out of his eyes, but he figured it was the head injury that made that appear a realistic concept.

"It's Chenle, actually. My name is Chenle," the boy retorted, looking Renjun up and down. Renjun shook his head and walked past him and into the changing room, rolling his eyes. 

Jaemin made his way to his locker, needing a few attempts at the combination to open it, his backpack almost falling right on top of him. While shoving it back into the locker that seemed way too narrow for the bulky bag to fit, he overheard Renjun's newly familiar voice from behind his locker. 

"What did you just say to me?"

"What? I didn't say anything," Jaemin recognized the other voice as the loud, blond kid's. Chenle, he said his name was. 

"Do you think I'm fucking deaf or something?" Renjun's voice was calm, but coated in frustration. 

"I didn't say anything! What's your damage?" Chenle retorted, soon backed by a voice that seemed completely unfamiliar. 

"He didn't say anything, man. Chill out." 

Silence. 

"Whatever."

Renjun's voice was followed by the slam of a locker door, as the boy stormed out. Jaemin thought about following him outside, before his bag fell out of his locker, yet again, this time falling directly on his head and prompting a smooth _"fuck"_ to slip from his lips. By the time he turned towards the changing room's exit, Renjun was gone, the door swinging in his wake. 

 

***

 

Huang Renjun was tired, covered in paint, sweatier than anyone should ever want to be and pissed the fuck off. 

As if it wasn't bad enough that he was doing two hundred hours of community service for shoplifting a pair of $30 earphones from Walmart and telling the cop who caught him to suck a donkey dick, he got hit by fucking _lightning_  on his first day, and was treated like a crazy person when he called out that loud kid for insulting him. 

"Fat fucking chance no one else heard him," he muttered to himself, unlocking the door to his apartment and opening it with a familiar creak. 

"I'm home," he called out, the well known pitter patter of dog paws rushing across the tiled floor. The ecstatic looking beagle reached his feet just as he dropped his bag by the door, and Renjun knelt to pet the dog as he excitedly jumped up, meeting his hand. 

"Well, I hope for your sake your day was better than mine, Moomin," he muttered, smiling at the dog. He heard steps shuffling from the kitchen, his mother coming out a minute after, a look of relief gracing her face. 

"Oh thank god you're home! Did they let you go early because of the storm?" 

"They let us go early because we got hit by lightning," Renjun retorted casually, knowing his mother wouldn't believe him anyway.

"There's no need for sarcasm," she glared at him, and he sighed, returning his attention to the obliviously happy dog, whose paws now rested on his knees as he cheerfully panted, his tongue peeking from his mouth. 

"You believe me, right?" Renjun asked, receiving a gleeful lick of the face from Moomin in response.

_"Thank god he has no clue I just spent half an hour licking my privates."_

Renjun stumbled in surprise, falling to the floor. He looked at his dog, who was still panting away carelessly, his tail wagging behind him. 

"Did you... Did you just _speak_ , Moo?" Renjun stuttered out, not believing he was saying the words as they left his mouth.

Moomin stared back at him in response.

"I must be going insane," Renjun muttered, pushing himself up from the floor and grabbing his backpack. He looked at the clueless dog one more time, shaking his head lightly and beginning to make his way to his room. 

_"How did he hear what I was thinking?"_

Renjun stopped in his tracks, turning around very slowly, his bag dropping back to the floor and remaining there, unnoticed. His eyes widened as he looked at the dog, whose tongue was no longer peeking from his mouth, his tail completely still. 

"What," Renjun whispered to himself, "the fuck?"

 

***

 

Zhong Chenle often found it fun to take the piss out of people, but after getting hit by lightning and not even getting that near death experience to count as a whole hour of community service, he had other things on his mind. 

So when that uptight fucker Renjun snapped at him for supposedly saying something he barely even _thought_ , Chenle's day was completely ruined. 

As the door Renjun slammed on his way out let out an echo that seemed to almost mock him, Chenle banged his locker door shut in response. He groaned, turning around to face the four boys that were staring at him, eyes narrowed in confusion. He shot them a glance before making his way towards the exit, his footsteps echoing through the hallway as he left the locker room door sounding in his wake. 

He shoved the bathroom door open, leaving it swinging behind him, and made his way to the sink, turning the water on and bending down to splash some on his face. He looked in the mirror, his face looking what could only be described as extremely frustrated, droplets of water sliding down his cheeks. His eyes widened at the reflection of the stall door behind him. Slowly, as if there was something weighing down his feet, he turned around.

The bathroom stall door Chenle was now facing seemed to have literally been torn in half. Pieces of red stained wood lay on the floor in front of the stall, and the tiled floor inside was splattered with red too, stains scattered across the side of the stall walls. Chenle pushed down the doorknob and opened the half of the door that was still attached to the hinges and looked around the stall. When his eyes wandered to the floor, he noticed his shabby pair of black converse was stained by the red puddle he was standing in. He touched one of the red stains on the wall, and looked closely at the smear it left on his fingers.

Blood. 

"Shit," he muttered, looking around the stall once again. A glint of gold on the floor, right by the toilet, caught his eye. He took a step closer, bending down to see a blood stained, golden chain, the letters MAX glistening through blood stains. Chenle's breath hitched as he stood back up.

_"Shit."_


	3. Banksy on the Loose

 

_I'M GOING TO KILL YOU._

"Which one of you guys did this?" Donghyuck groaned, staring at the red painted words on the brick wall in front of the seven boys. 

"Which one of _us_? How do we know it wasn't _you_?" one of the boys retorted, one whose name he hadn't managed to learn the previous day, being quite preoccupied with the near death experience and all. The boy had dark hair, bangs covering his forehead, and his face was almost overwhelmingly sculpted. Donghyuck narrowed his eyes.

"I am telling you now it wasn't, boy whose name I don't know."

"My name is Jeno, and you're a dick," the boy retorted, without so much as flinching, and reached for the sponge their probation worker had brought out just minutes ago. Donghyuck groaned in response.

"Then who did it? Is fucking Banksy on the loose?" 

One of the boys, blonde and curly haired, chuckled at the remark while already scrubbing at the paint on the wall, and earned an unnoticed glare from Donghyuck.

"There's no point in arguing over that now," the skinny, tall boy who hadn't made so much as a noise since a panicked scream the day before when the storm had hit. Donghyuck groaned again, this time in the kid's direction, but he seemed too calm for it to be fun to tease him in any way. Instead, he grabbed one of the sponges too, and reluctantly began scrubbing at the threatening graffiti on the wall. 

 

***

 

Chenle didn't know what the hell he was supposed to do about the discovery he'd made the day before. He told no one, keeping the bloodstains to himself and ignoring the nightmares that followed finding them. He was oddly quiet, though, and it wasn't about to go unnoticed by the six people that had heard him scream his way through community service the day before. 

_"How the fuck do I bring up finding pools of blood in the bathroom?"_

In that instant, the guy from yesterday, the one that had snapped at him for no apparent reason, looked right at him. Chenle felt himself shudder slightly at the speed with which the guy's head had jerked towards him at that thought.

"Did you say something?" the guy spoke, without the edge to his voice that had been there the previous day. Instead, his voice had an almost secretive tone to it, like none of the others should hear what they're saying.  

"No," Chenle hissed back, "I didn't say anything yesterday, and I didn't say anything now. I don't know what the hell you're hearing, but maybe see a doctor."

"You found pools of blood in the bathroom?" 

Chenle dropped his sponge, his eyes widening as he turned to face the guy who had taken a step closer to him. He was suddenly very aware of his heart beating, and wondered whether it was visible through the thick fabric of his bright orange jumpsuit. He leaned towards the guy, whispering almost directly into his ear:

"Who the fuck _are_  you, dude?"

"I'm Renjun," he whispered back, anxiously looking around at the five other boys scrubbing away at the walls, "and we need to talk. Away from here." 

He grabbed Chenle by the wrist, dragging him away, ignoring the yells and whines of the others about how they're slacking off. He stopped when they'd turned the corner, the others no longer in sight. Chenle snatched his wrist out of Renjun's grip.

"How did you know about the blood?" he snapped, wasting no time.

"I don't know," Renjun said, almost resigned. His brows were furrowed in what Chenle interpreted as deep thought.

"What do you mean you _don't know_?" 

"I mean I don't _know_ , Chenle. I could have sworn you said it. Out loud."

"But I di--"

"I know you didn't. If you had, the others would have heard too."

"Renjun," Chenle spoke slowly, "What the fuck is going on?"

"I don't know," Renjun said for the umpteenth time, considering taking a recording on his phone and playing it every time the need arised, "shit got weird after the storm. I can't explain why, or how, or what, but I keep _hearing_  things. Things people aren't saying."

"Things people are _thinking_ , Renjun," Chenle filled in, a shocked expression of realisation gracing his face, "Yesterday, when you snapped at me, I _thought_  you were being an uptight fucker."

Renjun rolled his eyes, but Chenle continued:

"And just now? I was thinking about what I should do about finding a pool of blood in the damn bathroom--"

"You should call the damn police, that's what."

"The _point_ ," Chenle shot Renjun a glare, "is that you _heard_ it."

Renjun looked at him, without a word. He nervously cracked his knuckles, his brows almost knotting together in a frown.

"Renjun," Chenle was almost tired of saying this kid's damn name, "you can read thoughts."

 

***

 

To say that Lee Jeno was frustrated with this community service bullshit would be the understatement of the century.

He didn't realise taking the fall for his friend who'd been speeding at 4 am on a Saturday morning without a driver's licence, would result in him getting 200 hours community service for the dozens of pounds of weed happily settled in the trunk of his 2001 Ford Fiesta.

Needless to say, they weren't friends anymore.

Yet Jeno was still here, scrubbing at the crimson paint that may as well have been built into the bricks in some way, because it wasn't. Coming. Off. 

Meanwhile, the loud blonde and the brooding brunette had disappeared to god knows where, and the pretty boy with light brown hair was sitting on a half-painted bench, sunglasses on his nose, iPod in hand, nodding along to whatever was coming out of his earphones. 

Jeno really fucking wished he could rip them out of his ears and shove a sponge into his hands instead of the fancy looking iPod. As if on queue, the red earbuds fell from the guy's ears, prompting him to look around, baffled. Jeno frowned in confusion. 

_"Coincidence,"_  he thought to himself, and decided to take the chance before the earphones reappeared in the pretty boy's ears and he disappeared into his own little world again. 

"Hey," he yelled out, immediately grabbing the guy's attention, "you. Why aren't you helping the rest of us?"

"I have a name," pretty boy snapped back, "and I don't see a point. Whoever wrote that is going to write it again tonight, after we spend hours on end scrubbing it off. And then we'll have to do it again tomorrow."

"Bold of you to say we, when you're just sitting there," Jeno mumbled, prompting pretty boy to snort in response.

"Look, grouchman--"

"My name is Jeno," Jeno interrupted, hands now folded across his chest.

Pretty boy pulled his glasses to the tip of his nose, now looking at Jeno over the rim. 

"Sorry, Jeno," his tone suddenly got a lot less confrontational, almost genuinely apologetic. Jeno's anger didn't fade, however.

"Does that mean you're going to help?" 

"No, it means I'm sorry for calling you grouchman."

Jeno rolled his eyes, realising he was getting nowhere with this kid, and turned around, getting back to scrubbing paint off the wall. 

"I'm Jaemin, by the way," he heard pretty boy say, and chose to ignore him. However, he made it extremely difficult.

"Why are you here? You don't seem like a criminal," Jaemin continued, and Jeno turned to face him. He contemplated telling a lie, but decided on a vague response instead.

"I took the fall for a friend," he mumbled. 

"That seems more like you," Jaemin retorted casually, setting his iPod on the bench and placing his elbows on his knees and intertwining his fingers. Jeno felt frustration build up in the pit of his stomach at the nerve this guy had. 

"You say that like you know more than my name," Jeno snapped, prompting a chuckle to fall from Jaemin's lips. 

"I think you're more obvious than you think you are," he stated simply, picking his iPod back up.

Jeno wished it would fall to the floor so he'd take his damn eyes off it and do the work they were here to do.

A second later, Jaemin was cussing at the cracks that covered the screen of his iPod while picking it up from the ground. Jeno frowned, muttering the word, _"coincidence"_  to himself one more time. 

What else could it have been?

 

***

 

"Just _think_  about it," Chenle insisted, "What other explanation could there _possibly_  be?" 

"I don't know, _not_  mind reading?" Renjun hissed back, anxiously looking around to make sure no one else could hear them. Chenle was a hard person to keep quiet.

"Maybe I'm just hearing random shit," Renjun continued, "I can't be reading minds, that's like a fucking episode of Twilight Zone."

"And the random shit that you're hearing just so _happens_  to be exactly what I'm thinking?" Chenle was clearly adamant, and prepared to shut down every alternative explanation Renjun had to offer. 

Renjun's head was hurting from this bullshit. He sighed.

"It makes no sense at all."

"It must have been the storm," Chenle carried on excitedly, "None of this was happening before it, right?" 

"Chenle," Renjun spoke, trying to bring his attention to the wavy haired blonde boy who'd just appeared from behind the corner. Chenle didn't take the hint.

"I mean say what you want, but the only somewhat rational explanation for this that you _can_  read thoughts. How else could you explain--"

"CHENLE," Renjun yelled out, prompting a shocked and somewhat hurt expression to appear on the boy's face as he stopped talking. Renjun's eyes landed on the newcomer, who looked completely caught off guard. Following his glance, Chenle slowly turned around, seeing the guy himself. A thick silence settled among the three boys, until the newcomer spoke:

"You read _minds_?"

 

***

 

Mark Lee honestly had no fucking idea what was going on. Not with his life, not with this community service shit, not with the weird ass visions he'd been having for the past day and a half. 

And now two of his fellow criminals were talking about reading minds and staring at him like two deer caught in the headlights.

"You read _minds_?" Mark could not believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. His head was a damn mess. 

The two guys stared at him, the blonde one's mouth slightly agape, while the brunette kept his lips firmly pressed together, as if trying to keep something from slipping past them.Mark felt an eternity pass by as the three boys did nothing but stare at each other. Once he felt his breathing stabilise again, Mark brought himself to speak.

"It was the storm, wasn't it?"

The brunette narrowed his eyes, but the blonde spoke instead.

"Yes, it was the storm. It _had_  to have been, there's no other explanation that would make sense--"

"Chenle," the brunette spoke, but the blonde continued.

"No, Renjun, let me speak. I mean why else would he suddenly know exactly what I'm thinking, and when, word for word? It _had_ to have been the storm," Chenle reiterated, before meeting Mark's eyes, almost hopeful.

"Can _you_  read thoughts too?" 

"No," Mark answered, "No, I can't read thoughts, but something has been off... _Very_  off, since the storm. These pictures, these _visions_ , keep randomly popping up in my head. I thought I just had some sort of concussion, but--"

"Now you're thinking it may be something else," Renjun finished.

Mark nodded reluctantly. 

"What kind of visions?" Chenle questioned. 

"I don't know how to explain it," Mark spoke slowly, as if the words were heavy rolling off his tongue, "They're always the most common things, like a TV screen or opening a fridge."

"Sounds boring," Chenle interrupted.

Mark rolled his eyes.

"The thing is, the TV screen never plays anything that mine would, and the fridge is never mine. It's like I'm in someone else's head."

Chenle suddenly stopped looking bored, and Renjun seemed a lot more alert. Another eternity of silence seemed to go by, until Renjun spoke, slowly and deliberately.

"What if you are?"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're all enjoying it so far! Please let me know if you have any feedback in the comments!  
> I'm getting closer and closer to finishing off the introductory chapters, so I'm hoping to get into longer chapters with a bit more action within the next few. I hope you can look forward to that!


	4. Very, Undoubtedly, Extremely

Park Jisung woke in a panic. He sat up in his bed, feeling painfully aware of the speed of his heartbeat and the droplets of sweat clinging to his face. Closing his eyes for a moment, he tried to gain some control over his breath. He didn't quite manage, and opened his eyes again, stealing a glance at the digital clock resting by his bed.   
  
3:43 am.   
  
It had been the second night since the storm and the second night it had snuck into his dreams and woken him at the very moment the lightning hit.   
  
The second night of absolutely _nothing_ making sense to him.   
  
An involuntary sigh slipped past his lips as his eyes got used to the dark, making out the shapes of the furniture placed around his room. He stole another glance at the clock.   
  
3:45 am.   
  
5 hours and 15 minutes until community service started for the day. 5 hours and 15 minutes until he was surrounded by six odd, aggressive boys who had somehow found themselves in the same situation as him, a mundanely normal, peaceful person.   
  
At least that's how he would label himself.   
  
Realising there was no hope of getting back to sleep, Jisung threw his duvet cover to the side and got out of bed, grabbing a pair of sweats and a worn t-shirt off the chair next to his bed. He clicked the bathroom lights on and disappeared behind the door.   
  
Ten minutes later, he was running down the darkened street, focusing on nothing but the sound of his old Adidas trainers hitting the pavement.   
  
**   
  
While Chenle was quite satisfied with the heart to heart he'd had with Renjun and that other kid whose name he'd either forgotten or never known, he still had two rather big questions running around his mind.   
  
Firstly, why didn't he have a power? He'd gotten hit by lightning too, and he hit his shin on a bench _really_ hard, so it only seemed fair that he'd have a power too, but it was nowhere to be found. This frustrated him greatly.   
  
Secondly, what in the _hell_ had happened to that Max kid? Although weird shit seemed to be the default ever since the storm, disappearing and leaving nothing but a pool of blood and a tacky chain behind seemed like too much, even for the trippy alternative universe he'd found himself in. The only theory Chenle could come up with was that Max had come into contact with tasteful jewellery and melted away like the Wicked Witch of the West at the shock.   
  
These were the thoughts occupying the blonde boy's mind as he made his way across the community centre parking lot, his eyes glued to the ground, brows furrowed in thought.   
  
"I don't have any idea what to do about Max either, if that helps any," Chenle nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden appearance of the voice, although it was familiar. The side of Renjun's mouth was twisted into a satisfying smirk at Chenle's reaction.   
  
"DUDE," Chenle exclaimed, "don't _DO_ that."   
  
Renjun let out a hearty chuckle. Chenle was pretty damn sure this was the first time he'd seen the boy without a deadly serious expression on his face. For once, he didn't seem cooly calculated, and, to be quite honest, it suited him better.   
  
" _Seriously_ , you nearly gave me a heart attack. Check your mind reading privilege."   
  
"It was funny," Renjun shrugged, a satisfying grin still gracing his face.   
  
Chenle frowned.   
  
"For you, maybe."   
  
Renjun rolled his eyes, _still_ smiling.   
  
"Back to the actual point, though," the smile on his face faltered, "What _do_ we do? I mean the kid could be dead in a ditch somewhere."   
  
"My theory," Chenle began, shoving the Wicked Witch concept out of his mind before continuing, "is that someone finally got tired of his shit and he got into a knife fight and ended up in the bathroom in an attempt to wash up."   
  
"How do you explain the chain being left behind?"   
  
"Maybe his attacker was a Good Samaritan and took that atrocity off for him."   
  
"Chenle."   
  
"That's my name."   
  
"Be serious."   
  
Chenle stopped walking, looking Renjun right in the eye and prompting him to stop too.   
  
"Okay, genius, what do you think we should do?"   
  
"Tell someone," Renjun stated simply.   
  
"What if he's just playing a joke on us and we end up looking like bored community service kids just trying to make more trouble?"   
  
Renjun's smile was nowhere to be found now, a frown firmly in its place.   
  
"Good point."   
  
Chenle nodded in response, continuing to walk towards the dull, grey building and dreading the next few hours already. He wanted to get back to pondering why he couldn't fly or move things with his mind or something, but Renjun's quiet, brooding presence made it almost impossible to think about something that trivial.   
  
They had to figure out what to do about the kid who'd vanished and the pools of blood he'd left behind, and they had to do it fast.   
  
**   
  
Jisung wasn't exactly _surprised_ at the fact that he was tired. He was more frustrated, cursing his past self for not at least _attempting_ to get some more sleep, instead of running around the neighbourhood for an hour and burying his nose in a book until the sun started to rise.   
  
He had to try, _really_ try, to keep his eyes open as he dragged on the heavy orange fabric of his jumpsuit. The other boys' voices echoed through the changing room, and although it was the third day and Jisung expected nothing less than mindless noise bouncing off the walls, they seemed to be unbearably loud today.   
  
Now fully orange clad, Jisung shoved his backpack into the empty locker, closing it slowly and with a satisfying click. He turned around, only to face one of the other guys standing closer to him than anyone ever should. His red hair was at eye level, his eyes narrowed at Jisung for some unknown reason.   
  
"You," the guy spoke, "are _too_ quiet."   
  
"Excuse me?" Jisung retorted, feeling his eyebrows knot into a frown.   
  
"All this weird stuff is happening, the graffiti is back on the wall, and you're the only one who has _nothing_ to say about it," the statement was so simple, yet made no sense to Jisung's tired mind. Or his rational one, for that matter.   
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"   
  
"It's _suspicious_ ."   
  
Jisung's eyes widened.   
  
"You think _I_ had something to do with it?"   
  
"Did you not?"   
  
"You don't even know me, what gives you the right--"   
  
"That's really rude of me," the guy finally took a step back, "I'm Donghyuck, and you are?"   
  
"Tired of you already," Jisung retorted, the adamant look on Donghyuck's face prompting him to add on, but only after a prominent sigh and an eye roll: "I'm Jisung."   
  
"Fantastic, lovely to meet you, why do you paint graffiti and then clean it the next day?"   
  
"I _don't_ ."   
  
"Do you think I'm a _fool_ ?"   
  
"Quite frankly, yes."   
  
Donghyuck let out an offended gasp, his mouth forming a perfect, insulted 'o'.   
  
"Well that's just rude," he managed.   
  
"So is accusing me of a mindless crime I didn't commit."   
  
"Point taken," Donghyuck nodded, seemingly satisfied, although his furrowed eyebrows made Jisung wonder exactly what he was thinking.   
  
"Does this mean you'll leave me alone now?" Jisung regretted the hopeful tone of his question as soon as it left his mouth.   
  
"No, not at all. It means we have to figure this out together."   
  
Jisung mentally cursed his twenty-seconds-ago self.   
  
"If you say no to this, then you definitely did it," Donghyuck stated, self-satisfied at the check-mate Jisung had been placed in.   
  
Jisung closed his eyes, trying to count all the different ways he could come up with to cuss Donghyuck out, before opening his eyes again and letting out a big sigh, followed by a resigned:   
  
" _Fine_ ."   
  
**   
  
All Chenle wanted was a second alone. No one spoke as the seven boys scrubbed away at the graffiti that had reappeared, exactly the same as it had been the previous day. Well, no one spoke aside from the tall, slim boy with chestnut brown hair, who kept muttering, _"Didn't I say this would happen?_ " under his breath, earning him dirty looks from the darker haired boy scrubbing next to him.   
  
It was eerily quiet, yet somehow so suffocating that running off to the changing rooms under the excuse of needing the bathroom seemed like the only thing Chenle was fully capable of doing.   
  
The door swung behind him, his footsteps echoing on the tiled floor. Spotting a bench unobstructed by discarded backpacks and crumpled up pairs of jeans, he rushed towards it and sat down, letting out a sigh of relief.   
  
Chenle didn't mind being around people. Not at all. In fact, he could be dubbed the definition of a people person. One could go as far as to say he _loved_ being surrounded by people, but not like this, not when he felt like invisible chains of his mistakes held him back, stopped him from thinking and speaking as he usually did. Knowing that the others had made mistakes too didn't make it any easier, as he would have expected it to.   
  
He just needed a second alone.   
  
The need persisted even as odd chills began to run through him, and his hands began to shake. It faded slightly as his sight blurred, and fear took over, the unfamiliarity of what was happening making his heart race.   
  
And then it stopped.   
  
Chenle looked at his hands, now completely stilled, and seemingly unchanged. His heartbeat had gone back to normal, his breath slowing down, his eyesight clear. Everything seemed fine, except for the fact that he didn't know what the fuck had just happened?   
  
"Did I just have an aneurysm?" he muttered to himself, eyes still glued to his hands. Nothing was off, not even one thing, yet he still found himself standing up, on the way to go get help.   
  
As if on queue, the changing room door swung open, the kid who saw the weird fridges in his head walked in, a frown on his face, eyes glued to the floor.   
  
"Hey!" Chenle called out.   
  
No response.   
  
_"Is this kid deaf?"_   
  
"Hey!" he called out again, but the blonde boy didn't even flinch.   
  
_"Seriously, is he deaf or is he just being a dick?"_   
  
"Hey, dude! Are you deaf or are you just being a dick?" Chenle voiced his thought clearly and extremely loudly. His voice bounced off the walls, carrying through the space. There was absolutely no way he didn't hear him now.   
  
So he was just being a dick.   
  
"Seriously dude, I don't know why you're ignoring me, but some weird shit just happened. I think I might be sick or something."   
  
The boy pulled his locker door open and reached inside it, still seemingly oblivious to Chenle's existence. Chenle stood up from his bench, now slightly pissed off, and walked towards him.   
  
_"Can't ignore someone who's right in your face, fridge boy."_   
  
He stood so close to him now, that another centimetre would mean his nose touching his cheek. He couldn't _possibly--_   
  
He didn't even flinch, taking his phone out of his backpack pocket, and sparing the texts piled up on his lock screen a glance, clearly looking for something in particular. A tag attached to his backpack read _Mark Lee_ in excessively messy writing. Chenle narrowed his eyes, making a mental note, and proceeded to blatantly look at his phone, hoping for him to at least snap at him and say something about respecting privacy and whatnot.   
  
Nothing.   
  
"Dude, seriously," Chenle practically yelled, frustration building up in his chest, "I get it, you're good at ignoring people, you can stop now. I actually need your help."   
  
Mark locked his phone, clearly not having found what he was hoping to, and put it back into his backpack pocket. As he was zipping it up, Chenle stepped over to his left side, waving his hand in front of Mark's face repeatedly, and getting no response.   
  
"I mean this is just fucking _rude_ , we had a perfectly pleasant conversation yesterday about Renjun's mind reading and your weird televisions and how the storm--"   
  
Chenle choked on his own words as he caught a glimpse of the cracked mirror on the wall he was facing.   
  
Mark's profile was perfectly outlined in the reflection, his slightly concerned frown covered by the crack in the mirror. It seemed nothing but normal.   
  
Except for the fact that Chenle, who was standing right next to Mark, couldn't see himself.   
  
Zhong Chenle had no reflection.   
  
**   
  
The two hours of community service that Jeno had just finished up were the _longest_ two hours of his _life_ . He wanted nothing more than to go home, throw himself on his bed and sleep through the rest of the day.   
  
He most definitely did _not_ want to be coping with a jammed vending machine right now, but he'd be damned if he didn't get his damn KitKat after a day of mindlessly scrubbing at the wall.   
  
He shook the machine repeatedly, but the candy bar stayed stubbornly still.   
  
Jeno was so incredibly not up for this, and, overwhelmed by a wave of, _"Why me? What the fuck did I do?"_ he found himself punching the old, unused locker next to the vending machine, immediately regretting it as the door flew open and he shook his now bloodied knuckles in an attempt to get rid of the pain.   
  
And then he screamed.   
  
Before he could realise what had just happened, the red haired guy who pushed everyone's buttons but his appeared behind him.   
  
"IS IT BRING YOUR TERRIFIED DAUGHTER TO COMMUNITY SERVICE DAY?"   
  
His voice carried through the hallway, followed by complete silence. He had seen what had made Jeno scream.   
  
In front of the locker, laying face down on the floor in his standard orange jumpsuit, completely motionless, was Max.   
  
And Max was very, undoubtedly, _extremely_ , dead. 


	5. Let's Get Killing, Bitches

Donghyuck had never seen a dead body before.   
  
Looking at the two day old battered corpse on the floor, he kind of wished it had stayed that way. Max looked worse dead than he did alive, and in Donghyuck's humble opinion, that was saying something.   
  
He kept his mouth shut, though. Speaking ill of the dead, no matter how gross they had been while alive, wasn't something he ever did. He disliked the idea of getting haunted by a white boy who consensually wore a gold chain.   
  
The dark haired kid who always looked like he was about to snap someone's neck, while simultaneously looking like he was way too nice to do so, was still next to him, mouth open in shock. Donghyuck considered nudging him to make sure he was breathing, deciding it would probably piss him off.   
  
So he nudged him.   
  
"You good?"   
  
The guy turned to him, almost threateningly slow, mouth still wide open and now combined with a frown. Donghyuck thought he would speak as slow as he turned.   
  
He was wrong.   
  
"Am I _good_ ? Am I _GOOD_ ? There is a _DEAD GUY_ LYING ON THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF US, HOW COULD I _POSSIBLY_ BE _OKAY_ ?"   
  
Donghyuck shrugged.   
  
"I mean, _you're_ not dead lying on the floor in front of us, so you're more okay than he is."

The guy's eyes widened in awe.   
  
"Are you fucking _SERIOUS_ ?"   
  
"Wow, you are a _loud_ one."   
  
"I can't believe you're this nonchalant about a _DEAD FUCKING BODY_ ! WHAT IS THE _MATTER_ WITH YOU?"   
  
Donghyuck decided that this guy could definitely snap someone's neck.   
  
"Okay," he spoke slowly, not wanting to be his first victim, "What do you propose we do? Mouth to mouth?"   
  
"I don't know, maybe get some _HELP_ ?"   
  
"Okay," Donghyuck spoke again, taking a deep breath: "WHERE?"   
  
"OUR PROBATION WORKER, MAYBE?"   
  
"DO YOU _KNOW_ WHERE HE IS?"   
  
Both the boys went silent, realising they didn't have a damn clue.   
  
"What's with the yelling?" Renjun somehow materialised next to Donghyuck, wearing his normal clothes and a perplexed look on his face. Donghyuck stepped aside, clearing Renjun's view of the corpse on the floor. Renjun's eyes widened with horror.   
  
"We're trying to figure out what to do about this dead guy," Donghyuck answered his question.   
  
Renjun was frozen in place, his mouth slightly open. It took a hot minute for him to speak, but Donghyuck tried to sympathise.   
  
"Holy fuck," Renjun's words were barely more than a whisper. He finally managed to tear his eyes away from Dead Max, seemingly just now noticing the presence of a whole other human being who appeared to be just as shocked.   
  
"That's what I said," the other guy spoke, only a little louder than Renjun had been.   
  
"That's not true," Donghyuck added on, his voice seeming much louder after the whispers of the other two boys, "You screamed like a little girl."   
  
The guy really looked like he _would_ snap his neck this time.   
  
"What the hell do we do about this?" Renjun broke the almost threatening silence, asking the question that lingered in the air like impending rain.   
  
He was met with silence, until Donghyuck finally found it in himself to speak:   
  
"I don't know."   
  
**   
  
Jaemin heard the yelling outside of the locker room, even through the music blaring from the earphones attached to his newly cracked iPod. He couldn't help but roll his eyes, knowing that the yelling had to be result of some dumb, pointless quarrel between the other boys. He didn't want to get involved.   
  
Yet, somehow, he found himself walking out of the locker room and following the sound of the voices that carried through the corridor. He turned a corner and noticed three of the boys huddled around something, their voices suddenly hushed and then followed by silence.   
  
It was heavy, filling the hallway, until the red haired boy spoke:   
  
"I don't know."   
  
Jaemin frowned. He didn't want to get involved.   
  
Yet, somehow, his curiosity overpowered the rational, _I'm gonna mind my own damn business_ , part of his mind, and he spoke at the boys, partially hoping he wouldn't be heard:   
  
"You don't know what?"   
  
Three heads turned to face him, each wearing a different expression of shock. Jaemin suddenly felt uneasy, like he'd walked in on something that wasn't supposed to be happening.   
  
He wasn't wrong, feeling his jaw drop as the boys stepped aside, revealing the most terrifying thing Jaemin had ever seen.   
  
The corpse was like a damn car wreck: as much as he despised looking at it, swallowing back bile and forcing himself to breathe normally at the same time, he couldn't look away, not even for a moment.   
  
"Wh-wha--"   
  
"The fuck?" Renjun completed his thought with more confidence than he would have expected from someone standing above a dead body. Jaemin found his words getting caught in the back of his throat, so Renjun's addition was met with nothing but a nod on his part.   
  
"That's what I said," Renjun added, turning back towards the horror on the floor.   
  
"That's not true, you said _holy_ fuck," the redhead commented.   
  
"Donghyuck, for fuck's sake, can you shut your mouth for like two seconds?" Renjun retorted, clearly frustrated.   
  
"Sure, can you time me?"   
  
"Are you guys aware," Jaemin spoke slowly, carefully, "that there is a dead body lying on the floor in front of you?"   
  
"Painfully," Jeno muttered. Jaemin imagined his facial expression pretty much mirrored that of the dark haired boy. He wondered why they seemed to be the only two concerned with the dead boy on the floor.   
  
"Have you," Jaemin had to stop and take a breath to avoid throwing up, "considered... Doing something about it?"   
  
"No, we were just discussing where to go for hamburgers," Donghyuck narrowed his eyes, his voice laced with sarcasm, "What do you think we're doing out here, pretty boy?"   
  
"I have a name," Jaemin found the nickname more frustrating than he should have given the situation. He was met with silence.   
  
Until Donghyuck spoke again.   
  
"You gonna tell me, or do I have to find out by checking jawline boy's sexts?"   
  
"It's Jaemin. I-I'm Jaemin, and what? What does that mean?"   
  
Donghyuck wiggled his eyebrows, the shadow of a smirk appearing on his face. Jaemin glanced around, meeting Jeno's eyes. The dark haired boy quickly turned away at the eye contact.   
  
"GUYS!" Renjun's voice echoed through the hallway, and Jaemin thanked all the deities in existence that they were the only people around this time of day, "Can we PAY some ATTENTION to the ISSUE?"   
  
"I have very sensitive ears, could you not YELL?" Donghyuck retorted immediately.   
  
Renjun rolled his eyes so far back that Jaemin doubted he'd ever see his pupils again.   
  
"Dead body. What do we do? Do we tell the others? Do we find the probation officer?"   
  
"The probation officer? Fucker's disappeared, haven't you been paying attention?"   
  
"Unhelpful, Donghyuck."   
  
"Sorry I'm not _psychic_ . Christ, the standards you have for a partner in crime are really damn high."   
  
"You are literally being the least helpful person ever right no-"   
  
"We tell the others," Jaemin didn't recall saying the words out loud, but the two quarrelling boys stopped and turned to face him, so he must have.   
  
"I agree," Jeno spoke, his words barely above a whisper, yet managing to echo off the walls.   
  
Donghyuck and Renjun both gave a curt nod, and before he knew it, Jaemin saw the backs of Donghyuck and Renjun as they ran towards the locker room to find the others.   
  
_What_ , he thought to himself, _is going on_ ?   
  
**

Mark was sitting on a bench in the locker room. Sitting, staring into space and trying to figure out just HOW he'd just seen a dead body in the hallway of the community centre without leaving the locker room. Chenle's _"What if you are?"_ played over and over in his head, and he tried to piece together all the odd visions that had appeared in his head over the past few days.   
  
What if he _really_ was in someone else's head? What if he could see through the eyes of others? What if he'd gotten a power from the storm, just like Renjun had?   
  
The sound of the slim, tall brunette slamming his locker door snapped him out of his contemplation, and he grabbed his backpack, intending to ignore the issue until it showed up again, or preferably, disappeared. He made his way towards the door, until he felt a tap on his shoulder.   
  
He turned around, finding himself face to face with the Chenle kid he'd talked to the other day.   
  
"Where'd you come from?" Mark muttered, his eyebrows knotting into a frown. He'd been in the locker room for a good fifteen minutes and hadn't seen or heard (which was more likely) Chenle even _once_ .   
  
"Oh, sure, _now_ you see me," Chenle narrowed his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest. The frustration in his voice confused Mark; where had he come from?   
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"Well, homeboy only went fucking _invisi--_ "   
  
The door swung open, startling both the boys and prompting the third to peek at the door from behind the line of lockers. Renjun and the redhead whose name Mark hadn't quite caught had stormed in, bringing an air of panic into the room before they even spoke.   
  
And then they _did_ speak, and it got a hundred times worse.   
  
"Hey dudes," the redhead spoke, "Remember that guy Max who was trying to not be as white as he was? Yeah, he's dead and he's in the hallway, it's really holding up traffic--"   
  
"We need help," Renjun interrupted, earning a glare from the other boy, and shocked looks from the other three, "We have no clue what to do."   
  
"There's... A dead man?" Mark managed, still processing the news that had just been dropped on him by the two boys.   
  
"Well, I wouldn't say _man_ , personally, he barely has stubble--"   
  
"Donghyuck, shut up. Guys, just come outside, please, and brace yourselves. It is not pretty."   
  
"Neither is he," Donghyuck added, prompting Renjun to push him to the side as the two boys left the locker room, followed by the tall brunette and Chenle. Holding the door open, he turned around to face Mark, who'd stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't know what to think or do, the vision from barely five minutes ago running through his mind.   
  
What he'd seen was clearly true, so whose eyes had he been looking out of? Oh, and also, he could _really_ look through other people's eyes. What the--   
  
"Come on," Chenle interrupted Mark's train of thought, grabbing him by the wrist, "You're not being spared, Mark, we're in this together."   
  
Mark shook his head lightly, refocusing on the boy pulling him towards the door, and trying to recall when he'd told him his name.   
  
**   
  
When Jisung caught up with Donghyuck, he wished he hadn't. The image of the rotting corpse on the floor made his head spin.   
  
Soon enough, the other two boys joined them, and Jisung considered how odd it must look to see seven boys crowding around something on the floor. He hoped, for the sake of any accidental passersby, that they wouldn't find out what the boys were huddled around.   
  
"I don't know your name."   
  
It took Jisung a second to realise that the dark haired boy that had come in with Donghyuck was talking to him. He gave a small nod before clearing his throat.   
  
"I'm Jisung," his voice came out raspy and louder than he'd expected, prompting the other five boys to turn towards him as well. Unsure of what to do, he nodded, realising that, although he'd spent big chunks of time with these boys in the past few days, he only knew Donghyuck's name.   
  
"I'm Renjun."   
  
And Renjun's, now. His presence was somehow comforting, and Jisung found himself grateful for this boy he'd technically just met.   
  
"Does everyone know everyone?" Donghyuck spoke, louder than anyone had been since Jisung had come out to the hallway. It made him flinch slightly.   
  
"I don't think so," Jisung muttered, barely audible, yet somehow heard by everyone.   
  
"Well, we're about to hide a body together, so we should probably do introductions," Donghyuck continued, "Everyone say your name, age, and your favourite hobby. I'll start, I'm Donghyuck, I'm eighteen and I--"   
  
"Donghyuck, shut _UP_ ," Renjun interrupted, prompting Donghyuck to roll his eyes. Ensuring that the redhead was quite finished, Renjun spoke again:   
  
"I'm Renjun."   
  
"Chenle," the shorter blonde that had followed Jisung from the changing room spoke next. The taller boy next to him still seemed shocked by the crime scene in front of him, and only spoke after receiving a somewhat violent jab in the ribs from Chenle.   
  
"Oh, uh, sorry. I'm Mark."   
  
"Jisung," he heard himself repeating his own name. The three times he'd said it today would probably set some sort of record.   
  
"Jaemin," the chestnut haired boy added on. His facial expression conveyed both, panic and a strange calmness that Jisung wished was transferable.   
  
"Jeno." the dark haired boy next to Jaemin completed the introductions, his voice strained and his word curt.   
  
He couldn't speak for anyone else, but Jisung felt slightly odd about doing _introductions_ while there was a dead kid on the floor. He kept quiet, though, and allowed himself to simply observe the boys he'd just met.   
  
**   
  
Renjun's mind was a damn mess. He never thought he'd find himself thinking these guys think _too much_ , and he never would have, if he didn't have to listen to it constantly.   
  
He needed a second away from all the thoughts he wasn't thinking.   
  
"I hope all of you realise that if anyone sees dead Max over here, they'll just assume that we did it," Donghyuck spoke up, only slightly unmuddling all the thoughts bouncing around in Renjun's brain. Still, he was grateful.   
  
"Do we call the police?" Jaemin's voice was barely audible, yet the other six boys looked at him, fear woven into their facial expressions.   
  
"If the police see dead Max over here, surrounded by a bunch of community service kids with tainted permanent records, they will also assume that we did it."   
  
"What if they don't?" Jaemin questioned again.   
  
"Jaemin, darling, can't you see not even one of us is white? We don't stand a damn chance with the police," Donghyuck stated, prompting the quiet boy to avert his gaze, a worried expression on his face. Jaemin was quiet, but his mind sure wasn't, and Renjun was having trouble separating the flurry of sentences in his mind, before just giving up altogether and deciding to go along with the mindless noise ringing in his ears.   
  
"We have to hide the body," he heard Jisung say, and found himself nodding at the idea. Before anyone else could add on, he interjected:   
  
"I'll go walk around outside, try find a place, and a way we can get him there without anyone seeing."   
  
The other boys nodded in agreement, Jisung the most hesitant. Renjun had sympathy for the guy, wondering what on earth he'd done to end up with the lot of them, as he hurriedly made his way outside.   
  
The relief of silence washed over him, along with the few rays of sun that fought their way through the grey clouds. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting himself bask in the peace his mind felt at the quiet, at his thoughts and no one else's. It felt beautifully foreign.   
  
_"Kill."_   
  
Renjun's eyes snapped open. He was ready to give whichever of the boys this was a piece of his mind for trying to mess with him like that.   
  
_"Kill."_   
  
"Dude, seriously--" Renjun turned around, frustration visible on his face, only for his eyes to widen and his mouth to open slightly.   
  
The only human being he could see outside, the only person close enough for him to be able to hear his thoughts, was the boys' probation worker.   
  
And all he was thinking about was the word, _"Kill"_ .   
  
He slowly got closer and closer, dragging his feet on the concrete. Renjun found himself backing away, as the terrifying word repeated itself over and over again in the man's mind, only getting faster and louder. Before he knew it, Renjun was backed into a wall, back practically stuck to it as he slowly inched away.   
  
The probation worker was now close enough for Renjun to see his eyes. His crazed, frenzied eyes, practically reduced to whites, his pupils tiny and flaming with anger and insanity.   
  
“ _I'm screwed._ ”   
  
"I'm so sick of dealing with trash like you."   
  
It took Renjun a moment to realise that this wasn't a thought; the man had said it out loud. He was scared, trapped, desperate.   
  
"I'll report you," as soon as the words left his mouth, Renjun despised himself for how thin and frail his voice sounded.   
  
The probation worker laughed. Loudly, maniacally.   
  
Terrifyingly.   
  
"Who's going to believe you? You're a criminal. You're nothing."   
  
Before he could realise what he was doing, Renjun was running, the probation worker doubled over in pain from his swift kick to the crotch.   
  
He wasn't thinking anymore, just running towards the community centre door, towards safety.   
  
Running for his life.   
  
**

"I feel like we shouldn't be playing pool while there's a dead body out there," Mark commented, as Donghyuck lifted the triangle off the perfectly lined up pool balls and picked up a cue, getting ready to break. He rolled his eyes.  
  
"Don't worry, I'm sure he won't mind, seeing as he's _dead_ and all," Donghyuck retorted, satisfiedly watching two balls drop into the holes.  
  
"Besides, what are we supposed to do, just sit and wait for Renjun to find a nice spot to bury good ol' Max? That won't do anyone any good."  
  
Mark saw his point. He was itching to get out of this godforsaken building and get home. His current plan was to bury himself in his blankets and not leave his bed for the next year, community service be damned.  
  
"Earth to Mark? It's your turn," Donghyuck said, handing him a pool cue. His eyes wandered to the other four boys, who sat by each other, leaning on one of the common room's walls and talking amongst themselves. He narrowed his eyes, and Mark followed his glance to a laughing Jeno and a smiling Jaemin. Mark turned his eyes back to Donghyuck.  
  
"What are you looking at?"  
  
"One hundred bucks says those two end up falling in love before we finish our hours," Donghyuck retorted, the confidence in his voice and the smirk on his face making Mark's skin tingle. He shook his head, and Donghyuck's eyes fell on him.   
  
"Shake your head all you want, just watch them fall in love and get married and adopt beautiful, culturally diverse babies, and then you'll be sorry you didn't take the bet. And then who's laughing? Me."   
  
Mark saw the hint of a sparkle in Donghyuck's eyes as he smirked at him and prepared to shoot for the third time. Mark hadn't had his turn, but he found himself not caring as his mind went blank, only for a vision of a crazed looking man yelling words he couldn't quite comprehend to fill it instead of any thought of pool, or community service or Donghyuck. He dropped his pool cue.  
  
Chenle looked up at the noise, immediately running towards him and grabbing him by the wrist. Mark snapped back to reality, grateful to the concerned looking blonde.  
  
"What did you see?" Chenle asked.   
  
Mark didn't want to say. He didn't want to say anything about the terrifying pair of eyes he saw, or the graffiti behind the angry man's head that he'd recognised. He didn't want to say anything about how the angry man bore a very close resemblance to their missing probation worker, and he most _definitely_ didn't want to say that the only person around the community centre who could be facing that horror, was Renjun.   
  
He didn't want to say anything, but he had to.  
  
"Renjun," he managed, loud enough for the other boys to come towards him at the word, each of them looking perplexed.  
  
"You saw Renjun?" Chenle questioned, ignoring the confused faces gathered around him and Mark.  
  
"No," Mark forced himself to speak, but the words felt impossible to push off his tongue, "Renjun's in danger."  
  
The door to the common room slammed shut, prompting the six boys to turn around at the noise, only to see Renjun himself grabbing a spare piece of piping that had been lying on a scrap pile of construction material, pushing it through the two door handles and bending it around them.   
  
Mark let out a sigh of relief.  
  
And then Renjun spoke, almost breathless, fear lacing his words:  
  
"Our probation worker just tried to fucking kill me."  
  
**  
  
Jaemin was confused, scared and about a million other things that he couldn't word if he'd wanted to. He went from sitting on a floor and having a perfectly pleasant conversation that almost made him forget the fucked up situation they were all in, to running towards Mark, thinking he might pass out or something, to staring at Renjun in disbelief.  
  
The man who was supposed to supervise them, watch out for them and want them to change for the better had tried to _murder_ one of them.   
  
"He was rambling about how no one would believe me if I reported him," Renjun continued his explanation, although Jaemin had only now managed to tune in.  
  
"He wasn't normal, guys. His eyes were... They were insane. They looked _dead_."  
  
" _'Our Probation Worker is a Zombie'_ is a good movie title," Chenle added, as Renjun shot him a glare before carrying on.  
  
"Seriously. The man was completely insane. We aren't safe."  
  
"It can't be _that_ dangerous. He's just a man, after all," Jeno seemed like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. Jaemin fought the urge to comfort him, knowing it probably wouldn't help much.  
  
"No."  
  
Everyone turned to face Mark, who'd finally spoken again after stating that Renjun wasn't safe right before he came crashing in. Jaemin wondered why no one questioned that.  
  
"Renjun's right. He was insane and something was very, very off. He seemed stronger than a human should be. And angrier," Mark's frown seemed to deepen with each word.  
  
"How do _you_ know?" Jaemin was grateful to Donghyuck for asking the question that had been on his own mind the entire time, "You were in here with us the whole time."  
  
"He sees things," Chenle interjected before Mark could say a word, "Things that other people see."  
  
"He _what_?" Jisung was louder than he'd ever been before. Jaemin didn't blame him.   
  
"He sees things," Chenle repeated. Mark placed a hand on his forearm, prompting him to go quiet.   
  
"The storm made things go weird," he spoke carefully, "Ever since it happened, I've been seeing things that didn't make much sense. Until today, that is. The things I see are always the things someone else does, like I'm looking through their eyes, although I haven't figured out how it works, or how to control it. Yet."  
  
To say that Jaemin was confused would be an understatement. It would also be an understatement to say he was really damn sceptical.   
  
"He's not the only one affected," Renjun added, "I've been able to hear thoughts ever since we got hit."  
  
_"How are they coming up with this bullshit?"_   
  
"It's not bullshit, Jaemin," Renjun fired back, slightly frustrated, "and no one is _coming up_ with anything. We're just as freaked out as you are."  
  
Jaemin flinched. The bullshit thing was easy enough to assume, but the use of the exact words he'd thought? He found himself more inclined to believe the unbelievable he'd just been told.   
  
"Something's happening to me too," Chenle added on, "Earlier today, I went _invisible_."  
  
"Okay, that's just ridiculous," Donghyuck spoke up.  
  
"I literally couldn't see myself in the locker room mirror," Chenle retorted, his eyes narrowed, "What other explanation do you have?"   
  
"Was anyone there to _witness_ this disappearing act?" Donghyuck squinted back at Chenle, the two now facing each other. They looked like they were about to get into a fistfight.  
  
"Mark was there."  
  
Jaemin caught Mark's frown from the corner of his eye.  
  
"I didn't see anything."  
  
"That's because I was fucking _invisible_ , genius. I mean you're switching heads as a hobby, but me going invisible is unbelievable to you?"   
  
Mark shrugged, the frown still on his face.  
  
"Fair point."  
  
"Show me," Donghyuck demanded.  
  
_“This is not going to end well.”_ _  
_  
"No, it won't," Renjun responded to Jaemin's thought as if he'd said it out loud.   
  
_“Can he not do that?”_  
  
"When I figure out how to block out thoughts, trust me, I will."  
  
Jaemin rolled his eyes.  
  
"I _can't_ show you, I don't know how it _works_."   
  
"GUYS!"  
  
Silence fell over the seven boys as everyone faced Jaemin.  
  
"Did we not establish that there is an extremely dangerous and very likely insane man who threatened to _kill_ one of us not fifteen minutes ago?" he was surprised at the confidence in his voice, but he tried not to overthink it.  
  
His question received six unanimous nods..   
  
"So, should we not be doing something about that? Like maybe figuring out how to _get out_ instead of bickering who sees what and who's visible and who isn't?"  
  
Six nods again.  
  
"I'll go check outside," Jeno spoke, meeting Jaemin's eyes, "Maybe he's gone now."  
  
He began to go towards the door, when Renjun yelled after him:  
  
"Don't go out there, Jeno! It's not safe!"  
  
"I'll be fine," the dark haired boy responded, the confidence in his voice less than convincing, "I run pretty fast."  
  
"I don't think it's a good ide--" Jaemin found himself saying as Jeno removed the pipe Renjun had placed on the handles, opened the door and the crazed man came storming in, grabbing onto his head and seemingly crushing it in one simple movement.   
  
Jaemin heard himself screaming, and then everything became a blur.

Jeno was walking towards him from the door. Renjun's warning rung in Jaemin's ears. Chenle and Donghyuck were bickering again.   
  
And then everything was back to normal.   
  
Five minutes ago.   
  
"I _can't_ show you, I don't know how it _works_ ," he heard Chenle saying again.   
  
Instead of yelling, like he had previously, he looked around, finding Jeno alive and well, barely a foot away from him. He let out a sigh of relief before realisation hit him.   
  
_"Did I just turn back time?"_   
  
"You did what?"   
  
_"For fucks sake, Renjun. Just... don't say anything out loud, I'm not sure what just happened."_   
  
"Okay," Renjun whispered in response, barely audible over the bickering that was still happening, seeing as Jaemin's interruption had remained absent. For once, Jaemin was grateful for the two stubborn boys and their quarrelling.   
  
_"Jeno had gone outside. Well, he tried. He opened the door and then the probation worker came in and... He killed him, Renjun."_ _  
_   
"Holy fuck," Renjun's voice remained steady and quiet, and Jaemin was grateful for the stability the boy provided, despite probably feeling as troubled as he, himself, was.   
  
_"Then everything went blurry and it was like rewinding a movie or something,"_ Jaemin tried to keep his thoughts focused, not wandering off to the terror he'd felt at seeing his newfound friend get killed right in front of him, _"And then it was back to normal. Except it was five minutes before, and Jeno is alive again."_ _  
_   
"Welcome to the puzzling powers club," Renjun flashed him a small smirk, and Jaemin found himself smiling back. At least he wasn't alone.   
  
"No matter what happens," this time he spoke, although keeping his voice quiet, "We can't let anyone go outside. Unless they have some sort of weapon to knock the psycho down with."   
  
"Agreed," as Renjun spoke, Jeno started towards the door.   
  
"Jeno!"   
  
The dark haired boy turned around.   
  
"Where are you going?" Jaemin questioned, making his way towards him, eyes glancing to the scrap pile that still had a few pipes, one of which looked big enough to knock someone down.   
  
"To the locker room, my bag is still in there," Jeno responded, seemingly confused at Jaemin's interest.   
  
"Could you do me a favour?" Jaemin hoped this would work. He reached the scrap pile by the door and grabbed the pipe he'd kept his eye on. Jeno looked at him, perplexed.   
  
"Uh, sure, if you don't sock me with that pipe."   
  
Jaemin chuckled, hoping his fear wasn't showing through.   
  
"I won't, I promise. Could you just... take a few steps back?"   
  
Jeno frowned in confusion, but did as he was told. Jaemin took a deep breath, knowing what was coming once the door opened, and forced a smile Jeno's way in an attempt to make everything see normal. He caught glimpse of Renjun, who gave him a firm nod. He found himself nodding back as he unbent the pipe Renjun had placed on the door and pulled the handle towards himself.   
  
It all happened in a flash:   
  
The probation worker ran in, mindlessly violent, and Jaemin used one of his feet to trip him up before coming down on him with the heavy pipe and knocking him to the ground. Suddenly, Renjun was at his side, delivering a swift kick to the man's, now concave, head. The man was motionless, and both the boys let out massive sighs of relief.   
  
Then they caught the other boys' shocked eyes, staring at them in shock.   
  
Jeno approached Jaemin cautiously. His eyes were wide, mouth slightly agape.   
  
"How did you--"   
  
"Long story," Jaemin interrupted his question, and flashed him a smile, dropping the pipe on the floor.   
  
**   
  
Jeno was pretty sure he'd just witnessed a murder.   
  
However, he was also pretty sure that the kind eyed, chestnut haired boy who was _just_ making him laugh as they sat by the common room wall could never actually kill a man.   
  
So he decided that, instead of a murder, he'd simply witnessed Jaemin being a fucking hero. _How_ he knew what was going to happen, _how_ he'd prepared himself for the probation worker's attack, _how_ he'd managed to save him from the enraged man, or _thing_ rather, he didn't know. He also didn't care.   
  
He barely noticed the others gathering around the body on the floor.   
  
"Is he... Dead?" Jisung wondered, his face filled with wonder and worry.   
  
Donghyuck nudged the body with his foot, and then did so again, but harder. Nothing.   
  
"Well, judging by the fact that he's not responding," he began, taking an analytical look at the man's head, "And the fact that his head could be used as a cereal bowl, I'd go with no."   
  
"Holy shit," Mark whispered.   
  
"It was self-defence," although no one had accused Jaemin or Renjun of mindless violence, Jeno felt compelled to defend the boys.   
  
"It was self-defence," he repeated, earning grateful looks from the two boys.   
  
"Of course it was," Jisung added, unquestioning, "We all saw it. He was going to kill Renjun outside, and Jaemin and Jeno inside, and probably all of us once he got through those three. It was self-defence."   
  
Everyone nodded in agreement.   
  
"Do you know what this means?" Jisung asked, prompting everyone to look at him.   
  
"Yeah," Donghyuck retorted, "Now we have _two_ bodies to hide." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realise it's taken me a very long time to update this fic, which is why I uploaded 2 chapters at once! Summer's been filled with family activities and just a bunch of exhausting stuff, hence the long absence, but I'll be back home in a week and hopefully able to work on my writing some more!
> 
> Thank you for bearing with me and I hope you've enjoyed these new chapters!


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